In their early teens, James Noyd and Conrad Rauwolf got high on alcohol, marijuana and cough syrup. Soon the teenagers, who didn’t know each other, added oxycodone and other prescription drugs before taking up heroin and landing in jail.

Local officials in Wisconsin are joining the Obama administration in urging Congress to approve more than $1 billion in grants that states could use for opioid addiction treatment. Wisconsin could be in line for $13 million if federal lawmakers act.

If you have to go to the hospital, health insurance is supposed to cushion the financial blow. But as insurers pass more costs along to patients, hospitalizations are getting more expensive, and checking in can come with a four-figure bill.

For years, economists have been talking about a historic slowdown in the growth of health spending, which they say was triggered largely by the recession. To people feeling the financial crush of rising deductibles and premiums, talk of a slowdown can feel totally wrong, and a new study of the out-of-pocket costs shouldered by patients with private insurance who end up in the hospital helps explain why.

Americans have long been chided as the only people on earth who believe death is optional. But the quip is losing its premise. A recent profusion of personal narratives, best-selling books and social entrepreneurs’ projects suggest that, as a culture, we are finally starting to come to terms with our mortality.

The world is on the verge of a fourth industrial revolution, characterized by artificial intelligence, robots, big data, and deep learning and analytics, but medicine is still stuck at the beginning of the third industrial revolution, which has already brought digital capabilities to billions of people worldwide.

After leading the former Shawano Medical Center through a period of transition, integration with ThedaCare and the opening of a new hospital, ThedaCare Medical Center-Shawano CEO Dorothy Erdmann on Tuesday announced she will retire at the end of the year.